


Lost Time

by JD_meister



Series: General Nefarious Shipping Week 2020 [2]
Category: Ratchet & Clank
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Just a little bit of Angst, Ranger Nefarious, Reboot-verse, Redeemed Nefarious, kinda sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27109171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JD_meister/pseuds/JD_meister
Summary: It had been a long time since Elaris and Nefarious last saw each other, and as fate would have it, he was to be given a second chance in the Rangers. He only worried for all that was lost between the two of them, and all that could have been.
Relationships: Elaris/Dr. Nefarious
Series: General Nefarious Shipping Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977172
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Lost Time

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote most of this only today whilst listening to The Gonk, from the Dawn of the Dead OST, on a loop. Strange choice, I know. The rest of it I wrote to songs like I Dreamed a Dream from Fallout Miami. I'll let you decide which parts I wrote to what song. I highly recommend listening to I Dreamed a Dream when you get the chance, it's a fantastic song.
> 
> Day 2 of the General Nefarious Shipping Week. The theme: In The Lab.

It had been four months now since the infamous Doctor Nefarious was brought back on board with the Galactic Rangers, in what was quite possibly the greatest feat of diplomacy and peace making since the great public speaker Lionel Johnston talked down the marauding horde of omnivorous Neuramites, saving the gentle and delicious peoples of Argon Seti III from certain doom.

It had been four months now since Doctor Nefarious and Chief Tactical Ranger and Head of the R&D Department Elaris had properly reunited. Never mind the time he tried to turn everyone into robots. That didn't count, they said, they never actually really saw each other in person then. After so many years apart on opposite sides, here they were once more, friends again and up to their old tricks. 

It had been all of four minutes since something did not go catastrophically wrong in their shared laboratory.

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

“Turn it off! TURN IT OFF!!!”

“I AM!!! IT'S NOT WORKING!”

Their latest prototype – the Electro-Singularizer, patent pending, try saying it five times fast – was misbehaving badly. It had created a miniature singularity at a desired point, as it was supposed to, but a grievous miscalculation made it more powerful than intended and now it was drawing everything in the lab not nailed down to it. Including the two engineers.

Electricity sparked and flared from the singularity like it was in a mad scientist's laboratory, zapping Elaris when she tried to turn the power off. She swore and kicked the workbench she had previously been hiding behind.

Nefarious, resident metal man and largely impervious to electricity, smacked a flying chair out of the way and dived to the other side of the lab. The prototype was plugged into a portable power unit, which itself was plugged via long lengths of heavy-duty cable into the central mains. Nefarious assessed the problem briefly. He then grasped the cables with both hands and promptly ripped them straight from the wall, tearing the power sockets out with them.

Like the snap of one's fingers, the prototype immediately powered down and everything the singularity had pulled in clattered to the floor in a cacophony of noise as it blinked out of existence.

Elaris popped up from her hiding spot and surveyed the damage. “Well, I think we can successfully call that trial a failure.”

The janitors would have a fit if they ever saw this. Nothing was where it should be. More equipment than she knew they had was scattered across the floor, every chair was upturned, the wall schematics and posters were everywhere but the walls. Elaris would never hear the end of it if the janitors knew.

They had almost been up in arms when they heard Nefarious would be rejoining the Rangers. “He makes a mess of the firing range!” Shouted one. “There's still scorch marks and chemical stains in my supply cupboard!” Bawled another. She could almost see their point. Sometimes she swore he made a mess just to be annoying. Like a big metal cat.

“Oh, I don't know about that.” Nefarious began, throwing the power cables carelessly to the side. “If we put settings and limiters on it, we can say that's the extreme firing mode. Use only in emergencies.”

“You can be the one to talk Sasha into it then.” The Electro-Singularizer sat sadly on its side on the floor, waiting to be rescued. Experiment over, she put it back on its designated workbench, flipped a switch to roll up the blaster shutters on the windows, and began the lengthy process of tiding up.

“Scaredy cat.”

“No. It's simply your turn to.” She eyed the damage to the wall. “What are you going to do about that?”

“Hm?” He turned and eyed the wall, where the sockets should rightly have been. “Oh, that! I'll look at it later.”

“Of course you will.”

He probably wouldn't. He would inevitably get distracted by something else, and then sidetrack her with it, and then they would both forget and get an earful about it the next day. 

She was busy putting the schematics and posters back up now, starting with his cadet photo, when she heard an _ugh_ from behind her.

“Why do you still have that thing, El?”

“What? Oh, don't look at me like that! Look at you, look how bright and young and happy you were!” Standing to said poster's side, she gestured enthusiastically at it. He stared, arms crossed, unimpressed. Not as happy, not quite as young, and less bright and more... shiny.

“It's ridiculous! Put it away.”

“No, I like it!” And because it annoys you, she thought loudly at him.

“Fine. I'll just find _your_ old cadet photo somewhere and make a massive poster out of it, twice the size of that, and stick it up, pride of place, with a frame and everything, right on the wall where everyone can see it!”

“Good luck with that!” She laughed, and pinned up some schematics. “I burned all my cadet photos.”

“Of course you did.” She didn't like that tone. It implied he was up to something. She sneaked a peek over her shoulder at him but he had already turned, busy tidying up his own little corner, acting all innocent when no-one who knew him would buy it. Come to think of it, she had seen him chatting with the records officer recently....

No. It would be fine. She wouldn't need to prepare for the possibility of a huge poster of herself on the wall in a weeks time. That would be ridiculous. She shrugged off the notion and continued setting the lab to rights. 

Within an hour or so everything was more or less where it should have been again. The wall socket still needed fixing but that could wait a while longer. Elaris wanted the incident report filled in and out the way as soon as possible whilst everything was still fresh in their minds, and, more importantly, so they weren't stuck after hours doing it. She typed. She did have more fingers after all.

Nefarious was perfectly content to sit at her side and prompt her with anything she overlooked or forgot. This quiet moment also gave him the chance to look at her more closely.

Her skin was a tad more purple now, all those markings on her skin spreading more than they had years ago. A little further down onto the backs of hands, a bit more on her face. There was even a tiny suggestion of purple sneaking from under the collar of her work-suit and up her neck.  
Once, a long time ago, he had asked if they were all natural or tattoos. Natural patterning, she had said. 

Nature made for a fine artist indeed, he thought, admiring her as she typed, his chin resting on his curled fist. The years had been kinder to her than they had to him. It took him longer than it should have to realise she noticed he was watching her.

“What are you staring at, you big weirdo?”

“You, genius.”

“You don't say?” She went back to their report but soon stopped when she realised he was still staring.

“You gonna stare all day, or would you like to help me with this?”

“I _could_ look at you all day, but since you asked me _so nicely_ of course I will help you!”

Elaris shook her head and laughed, blood creeping up her cheeks. He had always liked her laugh. He had missed it, missed her, during his absence. The years had been far too long.

“You're such a piece of work, Nef.” 

“I know.”

Somehow, eventually, thankfully, they managed to complete their incident report before the working day was up and e-mailed it away to the commander. The labs were now bathed in the evening lights of Kerwan's setting sun, turning everything to golds and yellows and oranges. Nefarious powered everything down for the night whilst Elaris gathered up all her things, trusting him to follow.

She was just about out the door when she turned to wait for him, only to notice how he stood there stock still in the middle of the room, unmoving except to look around.

“Everything alright, Nef?”

“...I don't know.” He said in a small voice she hadn't heard for long years.

She moved back over to his side and touched a hand to his arm. “What's wrong?” She looked around too, trying to see what had caught his attention. Was the Electro-Singularizer acting up again? That would be all they needed – to come back in the morning to a wrecked lab and irate janitors. 

“I was just thinking....” His voice trailed off as he continued to look at this and that, before finally he took one of the seats, straddling it and crossing his arms over the backrest. Elaris sat across from him. She could tell it was about something more serious.

“I was just thinking,” he began again, looking at everything but her, “about how things could have been different. If instead of that useless cupboard years ago we had this space. Look at it!” He gestured broadly with one clawed hand. “It's fantastic! It's exactly what I always wanted! It suits us perfectly.”

His shoulders dropped and he rested his head on his arms. “I would have been happy in a space like this. It would have literally solved, like, sixty per cent of the problems I was having. So much could have been different, if I just had a space like this in the first place. I... often think now about what could have been different.”

He sighed and drummed his claws. “...What was this room before? Do you know?”

“Just a storage room. I think Qwark was using it to store excess Ranger merchandise, or something, I can't quite remember. Commander Sasha had it retrofitted when she first took command and re-structured everything.”

“I see.” He said quietly.

It always came back to Qwark. Even when he wasn't physically there, he was still the centre, a magnetic singularity for trouble. 

Nefarious was up and staring out the windows now, arms folded behind his back, one hand clutching the opposite forearm.

“If Qwark wasn't such a dingbat, I might never have left, and you and I could have had something beautiful. ...I missed you.”

Ah. It was going to be _that_ conversation. The one they had been dancing around for two months now. The will-they-won't-they of their relationship.

They had gotten along well when he was still a ranger and she his assistant many years ago. Back then she was about the only person in the building he could stand to be around. They had been friends. They had been best friends. Then they started looking at each other too long to be just friends and colleagues anymore. 

They weren't too sure anymore who had made the first move. It had just happened. And they certainly didn't complain about it. And they certainly, _certainly_ , didn't tell the other Rangers about it. To this day it was their well-kept secret.

They were close then, but that didn't mean she could fix all the problems he was having with work. Eventually it all just became too much for him, and all the love in the world couldn't fix it. 

He left suddenly, throwing his resignation form at Qwark's face and ditching his career with the Rangers, and then promptly making several questionable life choices before Elaris could say “Hey, why don't we just take a minute and talk about this?”. It had all happened so fast. And then he died, except he didn't, and then he supposedly died again, except he hadn't. Then there was the Biobliterator fiasco and he disappeared – she knew better than to think he was dead a third time – before resurfacing in the Polaris galaxy of all places.

And now, years later, here he was back again in the Solana galaxy, back in the Rangers, and, barring some obvious changes, it was almost as if nothing at all had happened in the interim. What a time to be alive.

Elaris joined him at the window. It was a beautiful view from the lab.

“All the things you could have used to describe the captain, with your _colourful_ language database, and you go with dingbat? Neffy, come on.”

Surprisingly, he almost looked sheepish. “I promised Lawrence when I was starting back here again that I wouldn't swear so much. He's been attempting to promote positive thinking, would you believe, now that we're trying to live decent lives.”

“Is it working?”

He looked at her a long moment before he answered. “It works more when you encourage me. Not so much him. He doesn't have your technique.”

“Guess you'll have to invite me round at some point.” She said, and turned to face him.

“...Yeah. That's not such a bad idea.”

“I'm full of great ideas.”

“Yes, I'd say you are.”

They looked at each other. They looked at each other for a long time. Yes, against the odds, those old feelings were definitely still there, despite everything that had happened. Nefarious looked away first and wandered from the window. If Elaris had to put money on it, she would say he suffered from a sudden bout of shy embarrassment. Deep, deep down somewhere he still had the soft heart of the sweet, shy guy from years ago.

He was inspecting the posters now. “There's still time, I would say.” Elaris said.

“Hm?”

“Time for us, I mean.”

He shuffled around some more, struggling to meet her gaze. “I think I'd like that. I won't go anywhere if you don't.”

“It's a deal.”

Nefarious had stood before the old poster of himself and stared at it for quite some time, before finally shaking his head and turning away. “I can't even look at myself any more. God, I don't know what I was thinking.”

Elaris counted off her fingers. “Well, I suppose trying to blow up the Rangers, siding with the Blarg, trying to turn everyone into robots, _and_ causing havoc in Polaris was rather extreme, but-” 

“No, I meant about those glasses.” He pointed at them in the poster. “I look like a right nerd with those on!”

And just like that, Elaris swore she could have punched him. Who cared if she broke her hand doing so?! Honestly, why was he like this?!

“Oh, shut up Neffy!” She said, slapping his arm instead the moment he came within range, her fingers stinging and complaining about the hard metal.

He started laughing hysterically, doubling over with his hands on his knees for support.

“Oh, you're such a troll! I hate you.”

He laughed harder, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close, falling into step with her as they left the lab. “No you don't! You love me, really!”

Elaris rolled her eyes at him. She did, but it would be quite some time before she would admit it to him. Save it for another day, when the moment was just right.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it.
> 
> I think about Ranger Nefarious a lot. Honestly, his new backstory gives so much more material for writing and emotional punch than his old backstory, imo.


End file.
